I had the wind behind my back..3 months of updates

I know I have not been writing for the past months, I have been in a somewhat an overdrive, where I have been committed to sailing , work , family (mostly to uncles and aunties if you're reading this, Reese ) and also my social life. But this blog is about sailing, So this what I have been doing ,

Heritage Bay Cup (June 2009)
I was thrilled when I was invited by Mira to become a casual coach for the heritage Bay Cup, personally I am not a very good coach, communication isn't really my forte, so there is something to be learned in this trip to Pulau Duyong. And yes I learned heaps in dealing with new sailors from Dave Mills, not only that, I went back to the basic of sailing and strengthens it.

I also caught up with Nurul Ain, 2008 Malaysian Match Racing Winner! Managed to put some interest in her to join us, Mata Hari for Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta this coming November 2009 and from I last heard she is very likely to join us as our Trimmer.

Phuket Race Week 2009 (July)

This time I sailed with Niels on Pheonix, and then we have Pik Choo, Martin, Alex, Pierre and also Ai li on board, we came in third overall in our class. The highlight of this trip was my performance on foredeck which was good as I avoided all major screw ups, kept the skipper worried free of the foredeck and also my stay on Cateleya a 40ish footer cruising catamaran. It was fun staying on a boat, but it can get really boring for I am basically stuck there as it is anchored out in the sea. But nevertheless I had really good fun racing! Thanks to Niels and Pik Choo for the invites!!

Matahari 's Delivery 2009

Kinda ashamed to say, that this is my first delivery for Mata Hari having sailed on her for the past 4-5 years. So I got to do this, and luckily for me this delivery turns out to be a cruising trip.
It was fun and it was really tiring as we got in on a Monday morning and I went straight to work!

We started out with Vincent, Mat Nor and me, Our first stop is Penang, where we picked up Gweyn and Mel, then we continue through the stars and storm. Next Stop Pangkor, we arrived in the afternoon, stayed a night, big dinner and start sailing again the next day to Port Klang, not much wind, kinda slowed us down, but rewarded us instead with a beautiful sunset.

In between then and now, I was in a few club races, some highlights are we manage to have Sing hoe back sailing with us on platu, and we are leading the current platu series with Vincent taking helm. And on the last platu race on Sunday 23rd August 2009, it was really fun with us reclaiming the series leads after taking 2 bullets.

I am looking in to updating this blog more frequently now, with more details into our platu races.
and also more updates on our team development for the Malaysian Match Racing qualifier , we are proud to announce we have just confirm our participation after missing out last year.

RSYC Platu Series 31st May 2009

Today we have Wilson and Kok Fu with us, Wilson is a first timer while Kok Fu have had a few outings with us before, then we have Simon, yew and me. So with pik yi out of the picture we have an all guys crew, something we have not been for quite sometimes. I was thinking of a few bullets today; but we only got one out of three races

Race 1, The wind was blowing south west with windward mark at bearing 240; Wind was at 5-6 knots, but gusty at 8-9 knots,It was a bias starting line at boat; After screwing up a strings of starts 2 weeks ago; we were determine to get our record right; we had Tom barging from windward, and that spoils our start. Anyway south west wind is always shifty here. With all the boats regrouped close to each other at windward mark, we rounded it first and got the bullet.

Race 2, Again our starting line was screwed, this time by Aili's platu; anyway as we set off, we were leading until a shift changes everything. boats on the inside are now sailing higher than us, Tom , and Jeremy Camps. Jeremy rounded the windward mark first and never look back, as he took the bullet with us finishing second.

Race 3, We finally managed a good start, rounding the windward mark 1st, but in the downwind we allowed a separation, in which Jeremy took full advantage of, as they rounded the leeward mark 1st,
A few mistakes leaving the mark left us about 2-3 boats length further away, we manged to closed the gap; but still we finish with another second again today behind Jeremy.



With the Result; Jeremy now leads the RSYC Platu Series 2, on 18 points ,with us second also on 18 points.

Travel itinerary - Phuket

Travel itinerary

Guest Details
1.MR KHONG SHING, ONG

Flight Details
Flight Departing Arriving

AK822
Economy
Promo
Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Kuala Lumpur (LCC Terminal)
Tue 21 Jul 2009, 0725 hrs
Phuket (HKT)
Phuket International Airport
Tue 21 Jul 2009, 0750 hrs


AK837
Economy
Promo
Phuket (HKT)
Phuket International Airport
Sun 26 Jul 2009, 2105 hrs
Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Kuala Lumpur (LCC Terminal)
Sun 26 Jul 2009, 2320 hrs

I will be going to Phuket Race Week 2009 !!!

Sean

RSYC Platu Series 17th May 2009

Again This week, the wind was blowing from the north west, around 12- 15knots.
This week, Sing yew skippered, we have pik yi, Simon, Hui Min and Hui Mei onboard,

There were three races, first race was rather straight forward, we didn't have the best of starts,but anyway with a few wind shifts we were second, Tom took the race and we finish second.

Second race, It was a tight one, with us not certain that if we were over the line at the start but nonetheless we went back, started last. And of course we play our usual wind shifts, and got our self back in. The wind was shifting more to the north today, therefore the right side of the course was definitely the good side. We were second leaving the wind ward mark, on the second leg to the leeward mark, we were dumb folded again, it was not a finishing, it isn't the first time we mistook the flags for our platu races. A Windward leeward flag with a numeral pennant 2 doesn't means, 2 rounds. In our club Platu races it means 1 + 2. So we screwed up here. we retired from race 2.

In race 3, it was a race back to the club; having not won a single race today, we were determined to win it. It was a spinnaker start, therefore i needed to play my part right if we were to win this race, In the last 3 minutes of the starting sequences, yew called for a switch he wants a port hoist instead. Well i did it for him. and we manage to start off the line, sailing nicely away from the rest who were on startboard hoist. They were sailing towards the right side of the course . Where the current were stronger, but the right does look good in terms where we did spot a few puff and gust over there, so as usual, we spent some time trying to convince ourselves that we are on the correct side,which is left; and finally we decided to hold our course. We were right. We took the last race.



Sean

RMSIR - Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta 2009

Yo I am a poster Boy!!!

RSYC Keel Boat Series 2 - 10th May 2009

Yesterday 10th May 2009, was the start of the series 2 of RSYC Keel boat series.
Wind was blowing from north west, I will say around 12 to 15 knots. I was on Juita together with
Aziz , Swee, Tore and Scott.

Race 1, we had a fairly good start, but it was Skandia that got the best start, we did not have much problem except for that we had to go completely downwind at a point due to the ships/wind shadows around us., We were flying an A so it was difficult. We end the race 3rd on corrected time where cabaret 5 took the race followed by Skandia.

Race 2, we were stalled at the starting, it was looking to be a good start for us until the last 10 seconds where wind died off a bit; and then Rapscallion and cabaret 5 managed to come in on top of us and with the wind shadows that follows up, we were slow to get off the starting line, Skandia had another good start on port at the pin.

On the first hoist, I took a good few minutes off our time when I got the spinnaker sheets all wrond on the clew. And then we had a very bad jibe, where the A sails wrapped around our forestay; where we had to drop it.

We finish the race 5th on corrected times, with only 5 minutes difference to the 2 nd place; we could have done a liitle better and moved up. Cabaret 5 took the race.

It was a great day for sailing for the wind was blowing.

Click on the image for full size.

Raja Muda Selangor Internatinal Regatta - RMSIR Teaser 2009

Click on the picture or here
for more information.